The Constitutional Court has scheduled the issuance of a ruling on suspended Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha’s eight-year term in office on September 30th at 3 pm.
According to the court’s press release today (Wednesday), the nine justices on the court considered the minutes of the 501st meeting of the Constitution Drafting Committee, dated September 11th, 2018, which contains an agenda item about the approval of the minutes of the committee’s 500th meeting on September 7th of the same year. The minute was sent to the court by the House of Representatives.
The Constitutional Court has decided to end its enquiries, in accordance with the organic law regarding the proceedings of the Constitutional Court, because there is sufficient evidence for the court to reach a decision on the issue in question, which only concerns an issue of legality.
The opposition Pheu Thai party asked the Constitutional Court to rule on Prayut’s 8-year term in office, contending that his term expired on August 24th this year. On August 24th, the court issued an order suspending the prime minister from active duty pending the ruling.
In his letter of rebuttal to the charter court, which was leaked to the media, the suspended prime minister claimed that his term as prime minister after the coup in May 2014, which ousted the caretaker government of Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, should not be included, because it took place before the promulgation of the current Constitution, on April 6th, 2017.
